A. A Voyage from England to Africa and so forward to Barbados. Journal of Thomas Phillips. 1694

C. The Resources,
Products and Industrial History of Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District. Samuel Timmins. 1866

D. Bristol Brass:
A History of the Industry. Joan Day. 1973

Hollowware

The principal products of brass battery were pans, kettles, basins and bowls, collectively known as Hollowware.
The names of the vessels produced were recorded by Samuel Timmins in 1866, describing the brass industry in Birmingham, but recalling
its Bristol origins:

The demand and destination for such items is evident from the following extract
from the journal of Thomas Phillip, a member of the Royal Africa Company in the late 17th century and captain of the
Hannibal, an English slave ship:

Writing in his 1754 travel
diary, RR Angerstein described the hollowware destined for the Guinea trade:

A Voyage from England to Africa and so forward to Barbados

Cowries were essential, the smaller the more esteem'd. The
next in demand are brass neptunes or basons, very large, thin and flat. Certain textiles were also acceptable, but only to a
limited extent; near half the cargo value must be cowries and brass basons to set off the other goods.

Thomas Phillips, Whydah,
Gold Coast of Africa, 1694

The largest dishes that are sent to Guinea are 4 ft in diameter and the smaller, 1 foot, and there are in addition 50 to 60 various
sizes in between. It was said that of this article alone, Guinea uses 80 to 90 tons per year.

RR Angerstein, 1754

(2) Lisbon Pan. 35 cm dia, 10 cm deep.

(1) Guinea Kettle. 30 cm dia, 19 cm deep.

(3) Compass Bowl. 24 cm dia, 10 cm deep.

the articles manufactured are produced by the same processes, as neptunes, guinea pans and kettles, Lisbon pans, &c, viz., that
of "battery," or hammering.

Industrial History of Birmingham, 1866

Neptunes

The largest dishes to which Angerstein refers were Neptunes, large shallow pans, over 1 m in diameter
and around 8 cm deep. A number of uses have been suggested for the Neptune, including salt crystallization.

Guinea
Kettle

A 'kettle' was a straight sided vessel with an iron or brass handle to enable it to be hung over an open fire.
A Guinea Kettle, as the name implies, was a hollowware kettle manufactured for the Guinea trade.

Lisbon Pan

A
'pan' was a bowl or basin shaped vessel, having no handle. Lisbon pans were hollowware manufactured for the Lisbon
trade or copied from designs traded out of Lisbon. Portugal had been engaged in trade with the Gold Coast of Africa since the
15th century, trading brass for gold, ivory, pepper and slaves. Portugal had no indigenous brass industry; hence bought brass
from metal manufacturers in the Low Countries and later from Bristol.

Compass Bowl

An additional piece
of hollowware in the brass mill's collection is a compass bowl. This is a dome shaped vessel to which a handle has been attached.
The design of the vessel is such that it possibly originated for holding a ship's compass, brass being non-magnetic, again alluding
to sea-trade.

Local Markets

Brass hollowware was also supplied to local markets, particularly from the later 18th century
onwards, as the focus of the brass industry moved to Birmingham and Liverpool overtook Bristol as Britain's second port. Large Lisbon
type pans are known to have been used by Welsh dairy farmers, calling them milk pans. There are
also records of brass hollowware being sold at local fairs in the 1740s, such as at Norton St Phillip May Fairs.

Brass and Copper Sheet

In the later 18th century, two of the Saltford waterwheels were converted to power a rolling mill to enable
the production of copper and brass sheet. Metal sheet was sold as a raw material in its own right, rather than a finished product.

In
the early 19th century, the musical instrument firm of Boosey were purchasing sheet brass from Saltford for their products.

In
1872, J.B Bowler set up a business in Bath as a brass founder and general engineer, selling, among other products, brass and
copper sheets. J.B. Bowler's now forms the basis of the Museum of Bath at Work.

Manillas

Manillas are penannular armlets,
made mostly in copper or bronze, which served as currency among West African peoples, in particular on the Guinea Coast, the Gold
Coast, Calabar and parts of Nigeria. Although not produced in battery mills, the Bristol Brass Company did cast metals
at Baptist Mills, including manillas. Samuel Timmins, in his 1866 description of the brass industry, refers to the production
of maillas by the Harford & Bristol Brass Company:

Manillas, once made in tons, are the circulating medium of the natives of the Gold Coast... Immense quantities of a species of money,
known as Manillas, were at one time produced... by casting. It... was exported to the Spanish settlements on the New and Old
Calabar, and the Bonny Rivers in Africa. In addition to that produced in this town (Birmingham), it was largely manufactured
by the Bristol house of Harfords... and was cast of a metal composed of copper, with a very large proportion of lead as an alloy and
hardened by arsenic.